What Cleans Smoke Residue from Surfaces in My Dallas Home?

6/17/2020 (Permalink)

SERVPRO has the tools and expertise to assist you after a fire occurs in your home.

SERVPRO can thoroughly clean your home and its contents after a fire loss incident. 

Cleaning up after a fire loss can indicate several specific tasks that your Dallas home needs to return to preloss condition. Residues and debris are among the most challenging conditions for our SERVPRO professionals to address. That is why we have so many strategies for removing these layers of smoke and soot damage. 

Cleaning surfaces and contents is a portion of the total fire restorationfor Dallas homes. The cleaning and repair of these areas of your home is a calculated process despite how potentially hazardous or threatening smoke damages and residues might be on surfaces after a fire. There are more wrong ways to clean up these residues than right ones, so we carefully consider the best approach to ensure that no irreparable damage befalls structural elements or contents in your home. 

What Do I Need to Clean Up? 

As earlier stated, multiple cleaning processes must occur after a fire loss in your home. Some of these occur immediately during the emergency services that we provide or during mitigation. When you secure the services of professional restorers like our SERVPRO team, we can help through each of these individual cleaning focuses, beginning as soon as our technicians first arrive at your property. Some of these focal areas include: 

• Fire Debris - Charred remnants of contents and structural elements can lie in heaps of ash and soot throughout your house. Our focus on removing this debris early can reduce the concentrations of both soot and odors from circulating. 
• Smoke Residues - Wet smoke can leave a thick residue on surfaces and contents throughout the damaged area, which can be a challenge to remove without specific solvents and wipe cleaning techniques. 
• Soot Residues - Soot is carcinogenic, making it a hazard for those exposed. Even when these particles of incomplete combustion form a residue on surfaces, inadequate or improper cleaning could stir the coating and circulate soot particles into the environment. 

Can I Remove Smoke Residues on My Own? 

While it might be tempting initially to work on removing fire loss effects on your own, most homeowners lack the extensive training and hands-on experience of our SERVPRO technicians. Our team has accreditations in Fire & Smoke Restoration, Odor Control, and Cleaning through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC.) Smoke residues cleaned and removed improperly can cause damages to the materials involved. Among the chief concerns of addressing smoke damage on your own include:

• Smearing - Wipe cleaning with improper cleaning supplies can smear residues across the hosting material. Smearing can be a challenge to remove once it occurs, so before surfaces get cleaned, small test areas indicate the success of suggested strategies.
• Staining - The longer that residues and buildup sit on the damaged materials and contents, it becomes more likely that acidic particles can mar surfaces. 
• Carcinogenic - Some cleaning strategies can stir up and agitate particles resting on the surfaces, some of which can be hazardous to those exposed. 

What Cleaning Practices Can Remove Residues? 

By utilizing our SERVPRO professionals, you are getting educated professionals that can implement multiple strategies for removing soot and smoke residues based on the materials involved and the severity of the damage. From the time that our team arrives at a fire-damaged address, we can begin assessing which of the proposed techniques can be the most effective to remove challenging residues efficiently. Some of these include: 

• Chemical Solvents - We have a substantial line of cleaning products and chemical agents, many of which are water-based to help contend with oily soiling.
• Abrasive Cleaning - Through brushing and vacuuming surfaces, we can remove the bulk of built-up residues before we attempt to thoroughly clean. 
• Soda Blasting - Using softer media highly pressurized by air, we can blast surfaces to remove surface damages without ruining the material underneath in most circumstances. 
• Controlled Demolition - When in doubt, removing the damaged portion of material can prevent other construction elements from becoming destroyed. 

Can SERVPRO Help Repair Structural Damages? 

There are many situations in which structure fires cause enough damage where controlled demolition and reconstruction are the only feasible solutions. When you have an in-house team of contractors available to help, we can seamlessly transition from mitigation to the build back and repairs that your home might need.

No matter how threatening fire losses can be in your home, our SERVPRO of Northwest Dallas team can work around the clock to make it "Like it never even happened." Give us a call anytime at (214) 361-7887.